Abstract

“School refusal” is the term that is used to express students (child or adolescent) struggling with staying wholly or partly within the school environment, generating anguish and suffering. Behavioral Play Therapy was used to treat Rita, a girl (8 years old) who refused to go to school. Treatment consisted of assessment (interviews and observation) and interventions (change in the pattern of play and guidelines to parents). Rita showed changes in the complexity of play and agreed to go to school. The Motivation Theory by Dember and Earl was used to explain ludic choices in the hypothesized direction; the lack of details on the decision making in Behavioral Play Therapy was also discussed. A model of clinical decision-making that describes how the psychologist analyzes the child’s interactions with his environment is suggested. This decision-making model should be able to include the main features of the concept of play presented by Dember and Earl in their theory.

Decision Making; School Refusal; Behavioral Play Therapy